#9 – Rajasthan – At the sacred lake of Pushkar

The journey from Jaipur to the west to Pushkar was short and almost without problems. I had once again driven a nail into the rear tire. Fortunately, a tire workshop was nearby, so I could leave the repair to the pro. After I had this tube already patched, it was a good opportunity to have a new one installed.

The Pushkar Lake is a small artificial lake between Jaipur and Jodhpur, and is one of the holiest waters for Hindus of India. A bath in its water provides the same ritual cleansing as a bath in the Ganges. The lake was built in the 4th century BC and is mentioned and has been revered in ancient texts since that time. The lake is surrounded by ghats and temples. Every year, more than 100,000 Hindu pilgrims come here to purify themselves and pray for health for themselves and their families. A part of the ash Mahatma Gandhi was scattered into the lake.

Local Brahmins (Hindu priests from the top caste) support the faithful against a small donation in their ritual ablutions. As a foreigner you should be careful. Since there are many tourists in Pushkar, there are also supposed priests, who want to rip of in this way light-believing. These guys are very experienced and one must already have a certain hardness to get out of their catches without too much loss.

Just outside the town center is a hill, from where a temple towers over the city. The ascent takes a maximum of 25 minutes, but at high temperatures above 40 ° C you get a sweat. If you are drinking too little during this heat – like my companion Nigel – then it can happen that the blood circulation comes to stutter.